Particulate matter less than 10 μm (PM₁₀) activates cancer related genes in lung epithelial cells

Introduction: Particulate matter (PM) has various systemic effects. We researched the effects of PM on lung epithelial cells with next generation sequencing (NGS) and validated this with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Methods: We cultured the group exposed to PM₁₀ (Particulate matter less than 10 μm)-like fine dust (ERM^® CZ120 fine dust) at a concentration of 50 μg/mL and the untreated group for seven days in one normal lung epithelial cell line (BEAS-2B) and four lung cancer epithelial cell lines (NCI-H358, HCC-827, A549, NCI-H292). Then, we extracted the RNA from the sample and performed NGS. As a result of NGS, various gene expressions were upregulated or downregulated. Among them, we selected the gene whose mean fold change was more than doubled and changed in the same direction in all five cell lines. Based on these genes, we selected the top 10 genes, either upregulated or downregulated, to validate with the qRT-PCR. Results: There were the four genes that matched the NGS and qRT-PCR results, all of which were upregulated genes. The four genes are CYP1A1, CYP1B1, LINC01816, and BPIFA2. All four genes that matched the two results were upregulated genes and none of the downregulated genes matched. Conclusion: CYP1A1 and CYP1B1 are known to cause lung cancer by metabolizing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and long noncoding RNA is also known to play an important role in lung cancer. Considering this, we thought PM₁₀ might be associated with lung cancer by activating CYP1A1, CYP1B1, and LINC01816.